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Unit of study_

FILM3003: Screening Reality Since the 1960s

In the age of reality television and instantaneous sharing of social media, why do documentary's truth claims, and modes of representing reality, continue to be so compelling? This unit introduces students to the history and poetics of documentary cinema, its codes of realism and its reality effects. It focuses in particular on transformations since the 1960s, including the impacts of new film technologies, television, new media, computerisation and the Internet.

Code FILM3003
Academic unit Film Studies
Credit points 6
Prerequisites:
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12 credit points at 2000 level in Film Studies
Corequisites:
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None
Prohibitions:
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ARHT2673

At the completion of this unit, you should be able to:

  • LO1. demonstrate an advanced understanding of the history of documentary film in the context of the history of film more generally;
  • LO2. identify and analyse the modes, genres and representational strategies of documentary film, and their production and reception contexts;
  • LO3. critically reflect on documentary film as socio-political text, art practice, industry, and film/media commodity, and key debates in documentary studies concerning (among others) re-enactment, performance, production ethics, and the use of archival materials;
  • LO4. draw on the concepts and issues explored in the unit, as well as further independent research, to construct arguments and perspectives on documentary film.